


Eternity

by ToxicPineapple



Series: Saimami/Amasai ficlets and drabbles [17]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Awkward Conversations, Comfort, Crying, Emotions, First Time Saying "I love you", Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, M/M, Meeting the Family, More comfort than hurt, awkward dinners, happy crying, people are complicated, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-18 23:16:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20647316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: The adventurer is standing on the sidewalk, his back to Shuichi and his head tilted up towards the sky. His hands are in his pockets, and standing there, like that, he seems like he could be a part of the whole scene; tall, extravagant houses with polished gardens and ivory statues in their yards, streetlights bright and slightly yellowed, the sky wide and blue but empty of stars, like the quiet after a storm. He could be absorbed into the night right now, and the night would be the same, except that Shuichi would be alone with the taste of bitter melancholy on top of his tongue.Shuichi really hopes that Rantaro never disappears.---Shuichi meets Rantaro's parents.





	Eternity

Shuichi bites on the end of his highlighter, squinting at the folder he’s been leafing through for the past half hour or so. It’s one of those rare times where they’re back in Japan for more than a week or so, which means that now is a very good opportunity for him to help out his uncle with some detective work. The case his uncle has given him is pretty lowkey, too, just a small theft- the victim wasn’t even harmed, his bag was just stolen off of his arm while he was walking home from school. Cases like these don’t take Shuichi a lot of energy to solve, so he likes them. They’re certainly way less stressful than the case he’s been going at for the past year and a half- Rantaro’s sisters are hard to find.

Speaking of Rantaro, Shuichi idly glances over his shoulder, where he’s leaning against his boyfriend’s chest. The adventurer clearly has something on his mind, but he hasn’t said anything yet, and in the interest of respecting his boundaries, Shuichi hasn’t called attention to it, but he’s still curious as to what it might be. Since this morning, the detective has thought there was something that Rantaro wanted to talk about, but he didn’t say anything, and they just sat down (Shuichi in Rantaro’s lap, resting against his chest) to let him work like usual. It’s fine, Rantaro doesn’t  _ have  _ to say anything he doesn’t want to, but it must be important if he looks so nervous.

Well, maybe nervous is the wrong word. More like… apprehensive. At any rate, Shuichi is also insanely curious and he figures he might as well try asking.

“Hey, uhm…” He removes the highlighter from his mouth and caps it, carefully closing his folder and putting his thoughts on hold for the moment as he shifts around to make eye contact with his boyfriend. “Is there something bothering you, Rantaro?” Rantaro gives him a raised-eyebrow look, which means he’s surprised Shuichi picked up on his apprehension, but to be fair, Shuichi  _ is  _ a detective. (Quality of work notwithstanding.) “You’ve been a bit fidgety all morning.” He comments, and it’s true, but that’s not the reason he noticed.

“Not really,” Rantaro starts, and Shuichi waits, figuring there’s a but coming up sometime soon. “I mean, I’m not really  _ bothered _ by anything,” and the adventurer isn’t necessarily a pedantic sort of person, but he really does like to be specific about his emotions. Even when it’s not entirely true. (Perhaps especially so.) “There’s just something that I’d like to run by you.”

“What is it?” Shuichi puts his folder to the side and turns around all the way, crossing his legs and looking at Rantaro fully. “You can talk to me about anything, you know that.”

The adventurer swallows, but gives a small smile anyway, nodding his head a bit before he speaks. “So, y’know, we’ve been dating for a while, and I’ve met your aunt and uncle, but-” ah, Shuichi thinks he knows where he’s going with this. “But you haven’t really met my parents yet.” Really as in  _ at all…  _ Rantaro has a good relationship with his father, at least to the extent that he does business for the man, but Shuichi’s never met him or even communicated with him before. The most he’s done has been hearing about the guy from Rantaro, which is definitely rather strange. He’s met the guardians of most of his close friends- Kaede’s dads, Kaito’s grandparents, Himiko’s mom and Kokichi’s foster parents- but never his own boyfriend’s dad (as well as his many step-mothers.) “And I wasn’t going to try to force anything because that can be scary but… my dad really wants to meet you.”

Shuichi hums. “Alright, well, I’d like to meet him too.” He would, honestly. He’s heard enough about Rantaro’s father to be extremely curious about the kind of guy the elder Amami is. The type to marry a bunch of women and call all their kids his daughters, obviously, but beyond that? He has to be more than just some extremely wealthy business man with connections all over the world and a bunch of ex-wives. Shuichi certainly wouldn’t mind putting a face to the person in his mind. “Ah, but, did you have anything specific in mind? I don’t think I could come up with anything that would impress your parents…”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that, uh…” Rantaro blinks, like he wasn’t expecting Shuichi to agree right away, which is fair, but maybe he should’ve expected it at this point. He refrains from saying as much, though, so the detective does the same. “Maybe dinner? I’ll talk to my dad, but…” he pauses, then a relaxed smile returns to his expression. “Actually, I think we should just have you over for dinner. You could see my house- I mean, I guess it’s not much of my house since I’m never there, but it’s where I grew up, so I’d like it if you could be there.” Rantaro’s childhood home, huh? There are certainly worse ways he could be using his time. “And our cook is good, so I think it’ll be fun. You okay with aiming for tomorrow night? Is that enough time to get ready?”

“...you make it sound like I’m going to be doing something scary.” Shuichi remarks with a small quirk of his lips. “I’m just going to be meeting your father, Rantaro, I’ll be ready in a day.” He leans forward and quickly kisses Rantaro before reaching for his folder again. “I’ll look forward to it. And, uhm, should I try to dress up?”

“Uh… probably, huh?” Rantaro chuckles. “I’ll get that worked out, too.” He doesn’t say it, but the way he’s smiling as Shuichi turns around suggests that it’s a weight off his shoulders. It looks as though there’s something he wants to say, but he doesn’t, so Shuichi lets it rest.

And perhaps thirty six hours later, Shuichi finds himself standing next to Rantaro on the front porch of the biggest house he has ever seen in his life. The information his boyfriend gave him yesterday said that he should dress “semi-formal”, but Shuichi’s version of semi-formal is no jeans and shoes without laces, which he already wears all the time anyway, so he wasn’t sure what to make of it. Besides that, Rantaro happens to be incredibly wealthy, even if he is down to earth, and so their definitions of the term are probably… vastly different. Thankfully, he had a white button down in his closet, and a nicer pair of black pants than the one he’ll usually spring for, and his old suit jacket hasn’t been brought out in a while but he found it hiding behind an absurd pink sweatshirt that Kokichi got him for Christmas so he’s got that as well. It seems like he made the right call not grabbing a tie this time, too, because Rantaro isn’t wearing one either.

(On that note, it’s extremely distracting the way Rantaro has the top few buttons of his shirt undone. Very nice. He’s way too pretty and it’s extremely unfair.)

“Temperature check?” Rantaro asks, fishing his keys out of his pocket, and that’s a new thing for him, the whole  _ temperature check  _ thing- it’s what he asks every time he thinks Shuichi is getting really anxious, or just wants to check in with him. It’s a bit strange and Shuichi’s not exactly sure what it’s alluding to but it’s a bit cute so he’s not going to comment on it for the moment.

“I’m feeling alright.” Perhaps a bit of a lie. “Perhaps a little nervous, but that’s normal, isn’t it?” Though he doesn’t have anything to hide, so he’s not sure what he would be nervous about… the prospect of impressing somebody like Rantaro’s father, perhaps? It seems no small task, no matter how relaxed his  _ son  _ happens to be. “Were you, uhm, nervous before you met my aunt?”

“Yeah, plenty.” Rantaro grins. “I felt way better when she brought out the album of baby pictures though.”

Shuichi feels his face warming. “I thought we agreed never to talk about that again.”

“No, you agreed with  _ yourself.  _ I made nobody any promises because I knew that I’d end up disappointing you by breaking them.” It’s obviously a joke but it’s still enough to warrant Shuichi giving Rantaro a look. The adventurer manages an apologetic smile and moves on. “The pictures were adorable.”

“Ah, that’s your opinion.” Shuichi kicks at the ground. “I hate that she has so many. You owe me a lot of baby pictures, y’know,” and when he says that, funnily enough, Rantaro opts to unlock the door rather than responding, which is rude but whatever. They’ll talk about it more, in detail, later. The door swings open with a satisfying click and Shuichi is hit with a face of warm, pleasant-smelling air. As he steps into the foyer, he registers that the smell is vaguely citrus-y and coming from an air freshener and so he breathes it in for a moment before looking around.

The floor is remarkably clean. It’s a stupid detail to notice in such an extravagent place, but it’s the truth. The floor is hardwood, and very shiny, like it was cleaned very recently. There’s a shoe cubby against the wall on the left, and Shuichi notes with a pang that there are thirteen little compartments, and all of them still have the indoor shoes inside. At the very end, the one labeled Kikuko (Rantaro’s youngest sister) has gathered a fair amount of dust. The detective pulls away his gaze in favour of looking past the foyer and down the hallway. The space is large and beautifully designed. The walls are lined with pictures- pictures that Rantaro is in, or his sisters are in, and paintings, too. There’s one picture that must have been done by hand, with fingerpaints. A birthday card, it seems, addressed to Rantaro for his fifteenth birthday. That was the last age Rantaro saw any of his sisters.

From down the hall, Shuichi can hear voices- a deep baritone which he assumes belongs to Rantaro’s father and several higher voices, perhaps his step-mothers. There is a fair amount of hustle and bustle, likely from the kitchen (Rantaro mentioned having a chef) and the sound of music, beautiful but forgettable, drifts down the hall. As the detective steps out of his shoes, he notes that at the very end of the hallway, there is a winding staircase that goes in both directions, and a fork which leads off to the left, and to the right. Closest to them is the sitting room, and before that, the kitchen, and subsequently the dining room.

It’s a lovely house. The paintings on the wall make it feel comfortable and safe and despite how clean everything is it’s obvious this space has been well-loved.

But it still feels empty. Shuichi’s hand drifts over and his fingers intertwine with Rantaro’s, but he doesn’t look over just yet, because he wants to absorb the strange melancholy of this place for a moment longer. The Amamis are clearly very wealthy. (Not that Shuichi ever doubted that with all the planes he’s been on the past year and a half.) But… very sad too. It hits different, like a family torn apart, and laughter that used to fill the halls but no longer does.

“I know, it’s really obnoxious. Everything about my financial situation is pretty obnoxious.” Rantaro sighs. “I’d really be fine with a one-bedroom apartment, provided it had, like, windows, and stuff.” He’s clearly making light of the situation, because when Shuichi looks at him, it’s obvious that he’s affected too. (Anyone could see the way his green eyes lingered on the cubbies for a moment longer than necessary.) But this time he chooses not to say anything, instead just squeezing his boyfriend’s hand and wondering about the shoes situation.

“Uhm, do you have any indoor shoes I could borrow?” He asks, noting that Rantaro’s already stepped into a pair of slippers. The adventurer nods, giving Shuichi’s hand one last squeeze before letting go and reaching down to push a pair of desaturated green slippers over to the detective.

“They’re mine so they’ll probably be a bit big on you,” Rantaro prefaces. “But they should work. I don’t think there’s anything here that’s really your size. Especially not my fathe-”

“Is that Rantaro’s voice I’m hearing?” Footsteps sound down the hall and it’s almost like a shadow looms over them because Rantaro’s father, the man who has just walked over, is  _ absurdly tall.  _ It’s not an exaggeration. He’s easily more than half a foot taller than his son and Rantaro isn’t exactly short. It’s obvious that he’s Rantaro’s father, for a number of reasons- they have the same facial structure, for one thing, though the elder does appear to have a bit of a beard, which Rantaro most certainly does  _ not-  _ but most notably the matcha tea green hair that sits atop his head.

Honestly, he looks young. Shuichi is surprised. He’s wearing glasses, and an attire similar to Rantaro’s, and he’s insanely tall but he’s not intimidating. If anything he seems more like a quiet sort of guy. Hard to believe he’s  _ the  _ billionaire Amami. But there he is. “Yeah,” Rantaro answers arbitrarily, offering a grin. “Hi, Dad.”

“Announce yourself when you enter the house, son, didn’t I raise you better?” His father raises an eyebrow, and Rantaro chuckles, unembarrassed, and the elder Amami rolls his eyes but doesn’t seem genuinely irritated, so Shuichi’s nerves settle. “Is this the boy you were talking about? Saichi, or something?” Well, he’s close. It’s like… a combination of his given name and his surname. Half points for trying.

“Shuichi, actually,” Rantaro corrects. “And yeah, of course it is.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Shuichi smiles slightly, and when Rantaro’s father holds out a (very large) hand to shake, he accepts it. “Uhm, Shuichi Saihara, is my full name. Thank you for having me, Mr. Amami.”

“Saihara, eh? I know your uncle.” Shuichi widens his eyes a bit at the remark. His uncle knows this man? Why hasn’t he mentioned it? (He would’ve thought he’d have at least made a joke about the green hair.) “Purely business related, of course- your uncle is a very professional man, give him my regards.”

“...sure,” Shuichi responds, even though that completely contradicts his mental image of his uncle, a man who walks around the house in banana-print boxers and tells stupid puns. “I will.” He adds, to be a bit more polite, and Rantaro shoots him a lopsided grin, which he can’t help smiling at a bit. At least it seems like Rantaro is comfortable around his father, which is more than Shuichi could say for his own… well, alright, that’s a bit mean. Especially as of recently, he and his father have been getting on a lot better than before. They talk semi-frequently and his father keeps offering to fly him out to LA sometime for a visit. Things have been alright. Still, that week in LA back in their first year was stressful.

“Come on, dinner is almost ready.” Rantaro’s father gestures for the two of them to walk with him down the hall. “You should meet the rest of the family, everyone’s been looking forward to finally seeing the person who’s been keeping Rantaro so busy recently.”

At that moment, Shuichi really wants to correct the man and say that  _ actually, no, Rantaro’s been busy recently because he’s been looking for his sisters, a responsibility which should be yours since you’re their father,  _ but he doesn’t, because he senses that this might not be the right place for it. And as a guest in Amami’s house, he figures he oughtn’t be rude, even if Rantaro’s smile does turn wooden doll stiff at the remark. The expression disappears with the blink of an eye, but it was there, and Shuichi knows not to dismiss it. They’ll talk about it one on one later.

As it turns out, Rantaro has four step-mothers, which is certainly an unreasonable amount of step-mothers for any one person to have, but they all seem very nice. (His biological mother, though, doesn’t appear to be present, and Shuichi doesn’t really want to ask why that is. At least, not right now. He doesn’t think it would be appropriate.)

Miss Hamada is soft in voice and also face; her features are rounded and her hair is curly, pulled out of her features with a pretty purple barrette. She’s soft spoken, and her hand lingers on Shuichi’s shoulder a moment longer than he expects when they speak. Miss Hagiwara is the most pale out of all of them, with a very generous amount of freckles dotting her nose, and light blue hair that she cuts in a neat bob at her chin. Her smile touches her eyes but she seems uptight, stressed about something, and glances off every so often. Miss Nakamura has darker skin, comparable in Shuichi’s mind to Angie’s, and her wavy maroon hair is tied into a bun. She’s rather skinny, and notably the most outspoken out of all of them. Her laugh seems to fill up the room. Finally, Miss Akamine has blonde hair, similar to Kaede’s, but her eyes are a pale grey, almost like Mukuro’s. She’s quite sarcastic, and very funny- Shuichi laughs an embarrassing amount when she introduces herself to him, and more after that.

They all interact very comfortably with Amami, which is strange, because they’ve all presumably divorced him. But if they all live together, then things can’t be so awkward, can they? Right before the meal starts, the moment Shuichi and Rantaro are relatively alone, the adventurer puts a hand on his lower back and murmurs, “I know it’s a bit of a strange family dynamic, but it’s comfortable.”

And Shuichi can’t help smiling a bit, leaning into Rantaro’s touch. “You don’t have to defend anything, I like them. I’m starting to get a good idea of why you’re so well-rounded.” He pauses. “Though I think you’re the one who’s really to be thanked for that.”

The adventurer responds by dropping a kiss onto his forehead and stepping away to help a maid set the table. They talk very amicably, almost like old friends, and Shuichi smiles watching them. It’s a bit strange seeing Rantaro in this environment, where he knows nobody but Rantaro knows everybody, but it’s not a bad thing at all. Not dissimilar to traveling together, either.

The food that is later laid out in front of them is very… rich. That’s the most Shuichi can describe it as. It’s excellent, naturally, but he fears his palette might not be able to handle it. He didn’t exactly grow up eating dishes like this. Rich people are so extra. The Amamis clearly aren’t religious, because they start the meal without saying grace or anything, but that’s alright. The chatter that immediately fills the dining room distracts from all eleven of the empty spots around the table. Shuichi decides against taking Rantaro’s hand right now, but silently wishes he could.

“I’m dying to know more about you, Shuichi.” Miss Nakamura speaks up, her mouth full of rice. “Tell us about yourself.”

“Ah, uhm, there’s,” Shuichi pauses. “Not much to tell, I suppose.” When Rantaro gives him a sideways glance, he adds, “I-I guess I like reading?” then curses himself for how bland of an answer it is. Sometimes, being so comfortable around Rantaro, he really does forget how awkward he is. “Uhm, I have, other hobbies as well, I just enjoy reading the most.”

“You work with your uncle at his detective agency, right?” Miss Hagiwara asks, glancing off to the side before meeting Shuichi’s gaze. “What’s that like? I always thought being a detective was super awesome when I was younger.”

Perhaps an entirely honest answer wouldn’t be the best under these circumstances. With adults, it’s always tricky to tell. Shuichi doubts he could be frank, as he might speaking to his own father. (Which is so weird to think after the more than a decade he spent without parents.) “I would say that it’s satisfying work,” Shuichi pauses, then continues. “There’s… definitely something nice about getting to the bottom of things. Though, I’m not a very good detective, at any rate, so… it’s really not much to talk about.”

“You’re the Ultimate Detective, though, aren’t you? Isn’t that how Hope’s Peak works?” Miss Akamine asks with a raised eyebrow. “I would’ve thought you’d be a great detective based on that title.”

“Ah, yes, but,” Shuichi wonders if maybe he should talk about something else. This is definitely an inappropriate time to be self deprecating. (Especially with Rantaro’s gaze on him like that. They don’t really talk about  _ his  _ self confidence very often and he doesn’t particularly want to start.) “Uhm, n-nevermind, it’s…” oh, how to change the subject from there? He’s so bad at this.

“What kind of books do you read?” Miss Hamada asks quietly, sparing him and immediately winning his favour. “Are you a fan of detective novels? I know whenever I read those growing up I always want to go out and become a private investigator or something.”

Shuichi can’t help but chuckle a bit. “I do like detective novels, it’s my favourite genre,” he replies. He refrains from saying that he had a celebrity crush on Agatha Christie for a good portion of his middle school years. That time of his life, though he jokes on it on occasion, he would much prefer if it stayed buried. “They are… perhaps the only reason I know any English. Some of my favourite authors are English and not all of the books I want to read have translations.”

“I feel that.” Miss Akamine sighs. “Some of my favourite books are only written in English. It’s inconvenient.”

“You work with your uncle, isn’t that right, Shuichi?” Rantaro’s father changes the subject again, and Shuichi feels another prick of anxiety, wishing that the topic wouldn’t come back to his work as a detective so quickly. He nods anyway, though. It makes sense that they’d be curious. Not a lot of kids his age do detective work. Shuichi’s just really lucky, though, it’s not much of a spectacle. “So I imagine you have a lot of experience investigating?”

“Ah, well, yes, I suppose I do?” Shuichi isn’t sure what to say to that. “M-More than the average person, I guess?”

“How are you on missing person’s cases?” Amami asks.

“Dad, stop,” Rantaro sounds relaxed, cutting in before Shuichi can even think of a response, but there’s an edge in his voice that suggests they’ve had this conversation in the past. “C’mon, there’s no reason to talk about that stuff over dinner.”

“Oh, of course not, son,” the elder nods his head, but makes a face like he’s about to contradict what he just said. “I’m curious, is all. If he’s going to be much help on that search of yours.”

Ah. Shuichi feels his throat drying, but dismisses it in favour of looking at Rantaro. He seems very uncomfortable, suddenly, though his lips are still pulled into a smile. It barely seems felt; more like a grimace, than much else. His father is smiling as well, a passive aggressive smile that doesn’t reach his eyes, and it occurs to the detective without any warning where his boyfriend picked up that tendency to just keep smiling no matter how he’s feeling.

“I’m a bit curious about that too,” Miss Hagiwara admits. “Not all detectives are good at every different kind of case, right? If you’re good at murder cases, will you be able to work missing person’s cases?”

“I-It’s not necessarily a field where you specialise,” Shuichi stutters. “My uncle takes all sorts of cases, and I try to do the same.” Though, missing person’s cases  _ are  _ what he does best. He’s solved other murder cases since being accepted into Hope’s Peak, but he’s the best at finding people, without a doubt. Still, for some reason saying that feels a bit daunting. This conversation is so uncomfortable, he’s half wishing Miss Hamada will change the subject again, but she seems content to eat in silence.

“Honestly,” Miss Akamine lowers her chopsticks to the plate. “I don’t know why you’re humouring him.”

“Naoko,” Miss Nakamura starts with a frown. “We really shouldn’t-”

“No, I mean it,” Miss Akamine waves her hand, as though to cut off the other woman. “We’ve been over how none of the losses were Rantaro’s fault a million times, I’m sure you feel the same, don’t you?” She gives Shuichi an accusatory look, and he swallows hard.

“O-Of course, I do, but-” he starts, only to be interrupted.

“I just don’t think anything is going to come of it. Realistically, I mean. I don’t know if it’s worth spending so much of your time on something that’s probably not going to succeed. It’s a bit sad that he dragged you into this.” Ouch. Jesus. Shuichi blinks, trying to keep up with what Miss Akamine is saying. She’s obviously saying this out of a place of concern, it’s just that- well, he doesn’t know what to think. He’s angry, though, he can tell that much, through all the other complicated emotions swirling around in his head right now.

“I mean, I agree with you, Naoko,” Miss Hagiwara messes with her napkin. “But I think it’s going to take Rantaro a bit longer to realise when to quit. Especially when he’s brought someone new into it.”

  
“That’s not really fair, is it?” Miss Nakamura remarks. “Dragging your partner into such a time-consuming search. Especially when it’s a bit futile anyway.”

“Come on now, this isn’t the place for a discussion like that,” Rantaro’s father chastises, but there’s a weird look on his face that makes Shuichi’s stomach fold in on itself, and not with anxiety. “We’ve had this conversation many times before, it’s clear Rantaro isn’t going to change his mind on it. I’d much rather speak to Shuichi individually, or perhaps his uncle, to see if this is really something that he can commit to.”

Shuichi suppresses the urge to panic, looking to his right at where Rantaro is sitting, and it’s… really difficult to read his face, right now, but he looks disoriented. Confused. His hands, though, are shaking, and he’s clenched them into fists as though that’ll stop them. Whether with anger or just plain upset, Shuichi can’t tell, but it doesn’t really matter. The detective reaches over and takes Rantaro’s hand, making sure to be firm, but gentle, too, so that the adventurer knows he’s there.

“No, I’d rather talk about it here.” Shuichi speaks up, interrupting the conversation that had continued while he was taking in Rantaro’s reaction. He looks over at meets his boyfriend’s father’s eyes, trying not to glare but finding it difficult. “I don’t think the search is futile. Not even a little bit.”

“Well,” Miss Hagiwara starts. “That’s very sweet of you to say, but-”

“I’m not finished,” Shuichi interrupts, irate, and feels a bit bad for cutting in so harshly, but honestly, he’s angry. “I’m a bit- actually, I’m really- I’m surprised, that’s all. I’m really surprised that you wouldn’t be supporting Rantaro right now. I’m not  _ humouring  _ him, because humouring him implies that he’s incorrect, or lying to himself, and he’s not, because we’re going to find his sisters.” He pauses. “Your daughters.”

“You have a lot of faith in my son, and I can appreciate that quality.” Rantaro’s father says, and Shuichi actually  _ scowls,  _ which he’s not sure he’s ever done before, but he really doesn’t like being patronised. “But you’ve been searching for a while now already, haven’t you? Rantaro’s been looking for years, and he hasn’t-”

“Rantaro, your  _ son,  _ is seventeen years old.” Shuichi snaps. “And you’re expecting him to find twelve children- your  _ own children-  _ in the various places around the world that they were lost? Across  _ five different continents.”  _ He scoffs. “It’s absurd. If anything it’s your responsibility to find your daughters and the fact that you’re not searching as hard as you can is really shocking to me. They’re your children, Mr. Amami, and with all due respect,” Shuichi swallows. “If it was me, and even one of my children disappeared, I would make sure that  _ none  _ of my other children are ever out of my sight, and that none of them feel obligated to find them. The last thing I would do would be to tell my last remaining kid to give up.”

There’s a moment of silence, but Shuichi breaks it himself, because he’s still got a bit more to say.

“And to answer your question, yes, I specialise in missing person’s cases.” Shuichi squeezes Rantaro’s hand and lets go, getting to his feet and pushing his plate away. “I was accepted into Hope’s Peak because I solved a murder, but that was due to a stroke of luck, not anything else. I’m good at finding people. And even if I wasn’t, even if I was completely useless in that area, I would still be working to find your daughters, because they deserve to be found.” He suppresses the urge to scowl again, biting the inside of his cheek. “We’re going to find your daughters, sir. Even if it’s completely impossible, I’m going to spend the rest of my life searching until I’ve found all twelve of them.”

At that moment, he turns, and looks at Rantaro, but the adventurer doesn’t meet his eyes. He just gets to his feet too, and Shuichi gets the hint, gesturing with his shoulder for his boyfriend to go on ahead of him to the door. There’s not much else he needs to say.

“The food was delicious,” Shuichi praises. “Thank you for having me. We’re, uhm, going to leave now.” And with that, he turns to follow Rantaro out of the dining room. As he walks away, though, he meets Miss Hamada’s eye, and he sees that she’s smiling.

Rantaro doesn’t say anything as they exit the house- he just hands Shuichi his coat and steps out the door without meeting his eyes. The silence is, admittedly, a bit anxiety-inducing, but he gets it- after all of that, he’s pretty sure he wouldn’t know what to say either. The detective steps into his shoes quickly, placing the pair of indoor shoes his boyfriend loaned him to the side as he quickly leaves the house, closing the door behind him.

The adventurer is standing on the sidewalk, his back to Shuichi and his head tilted up towards the sky. His hands are in his pockets, and standing there, like that, he seems like he could be a part of the whole scene; tall, extravagant houses with polished gardens and ivory statues in their yards, streetlights bright and slightly yellowed, the sky wide and blue but empty of stars, like the quiet after a storm. He could be absorbed into the night right now, and the night would be the same, except that Shuichi would be alone with the taste of bitter melancholy on top of his tongue.

Shuichi really hopes that Rantaro never disappears.

His footsteps are loud, and they feel like they shatter the peaceful silent of the scene before him, like a handful of pebbles tossed into a still body of water. When Shuichi stops, the sounds of his feet aren’t absorbed, as the ripples from a handful of pebbles might be. They linger, and the energy shifts. Subtly enough that he can’t tell exactly what the change is, but obviously enough that he knows it’s there.

He wonders if he should say something.

Before he can, though, Rantaro turns around, and Shuichi startles, because (perhaps it’s a bit shameful that he’s so surprised by it) his face is streaked with tears, and more are falling from his eyes as they stare at each other. Rantaro is smiling, though.

“Shuichi, I-” he stops, looking a bit uncomfortable, and then he finally blurts- “I love you.” The detective sucks in a breath, eyes widening, and Rantaro laughs a little bit, wiping his face with his sleeves. (More tears keep falling, but they don’t seem as sad as the stars above them, stretching out into infinity but unseen by so many of their only witnesses because of the streetlamps and the car lights that illuminate the earth like a beacon.) “Sorry. You don’t have to say it back, I just- I wish you could’ve heard all of what you just said from my perspective.”

Slowly, tentatively, Shuichi reaches out and touches the side of Rantaro’s face with a hand. His fingers come away wet with tears but he doesn’t retract his hand at the feel of them because he knew they were there. Instead he rests his palm against the adventurer’s cheek, feels the cool clasp of Rantaro’s hand on the back of his.

“I’m-” Rantaro closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “I wish I could- I can’t really articulate how I’m feeling right now, I just- I don’t think thank you really cuts it. I don’t know how I can…” he trails off and doesn’t recover his thoughts again, staring at some point beyond the detective with something like wistfulness on his face.

“Uhm,” Shuichi pauses. “Well, I-” if he thinks back on it, Rantaro’s actually said that to him before (I love you, that is) back when they went to California for his mother’s funeral. He’d just come down from a breakdown, though, so the moment felt really surreal and he hadn’t been sure in retrospect if Rantaro had really said it or if he was just imagining it. Then there was the time they talked about Rantaro’s nightmares, and that time Shuichi  _ wanted  _ to say it but he didn’t feel like it would be comfortable, considering that they hadn’t really discussed it yet, and they still haven’t, but- they’re high schoolers and he really doesn’t want to speak definitively about anything but he sort of did just say that he’d spend the rest of his life searching for Rantaro’s sisters, even if finding them turns out to be impossible, so… maybe it’s not speaking too soon in this case. “I love you too,” he responds, and it comes out naturally, strangely, like breathing out a lump in his throat. It feels good to say. Sweet and thick like honey but not heavy.

There’s another one of those odd silent moments, and then Rantaro reaches out, taking Shuichi’s face in both hands and crashing their lips together. He must not have eaten much, because the detective doesn’t taste much of the meal on his lips- he just tastes familiar, like Rantaro, and a bit minty, so he must’ve been chewing gum or something earlier. The kiss lasts a bit longer than perhaps either of them is expecting, and it gives Shuichi time to rest his hands on Rantaro’s chest, leaning in closer- but the adventurer is the one to break the kiss again, sucking in a breath. (One tends to be a bit shaky while crying.)

“S-So, to clarify,” Shuichi starts quietly, as Rantaro touches their foreheads together. “The tears-”

“Good tears,” Rantaro laughs a bit, and when he smiles Shuichi realises the stars are visible after all. He’s not sure Rantaro’s ever looked more beautiful. “God, I- what did I ever do to deserve someone like you?”

“All I did was tell the, the truth.” Shuichi points out quietly, messing with the buttons on Rantaro’s shirt. “Anyone could’ve done that. I’m a bit surprised no one else did sooner.”

At that, Rantaro kisses him again, and when he pulls back, he’s smiling, a familiar, teasing smirk that makes Shuichi’s cheeks warm. “You know, you’re not the only one that can bring out kissing whenever one of us self deprecates.” The adventurer points out in a low voice.

“That’s not fair, I get embarrassed more easily than you do.” Shuichi mumbles, reaching up and wiping away the remaining tears from Rantaro’s face. He can’t really focus when his boyfriend is smiling like that.

“You should’ve thought of that before you decided to use your lips against me.” Rantaro says, very seriously, and Shuichi snorts, then laughs a little louder than he means to, and they’re both laughing for a short moment that seems to last an eternity. When they quiet down again, the adventurer says, “Really, though, Shuichi- thank you.” And his gaze doesn’t waver when they make eye contact again. His green eyes are on fire. “I love you.” When he says it the second time, it feels less time-stopping. More real, more regular, more of this world. But it still feels good, sends Shuichi’s heart into overdrive, makes him smile so hard his cheeks hurt.

He repeats the sentiment once out loud, but a thousand times in his head, and a thousand times after that.

**Author's Note:**

> it might not seem like it but I actually really like Rantaro's step moms they just make mistakes and stuff
> 
> Rantaro's dad is a rich business man so he can suck my dick but I'm bigger than demonising him for thrills and chills
> 
> Shuichi and Rantaro have dead mom solidarity but I probably won't cover that in this series. anyway Rantaro's dad is a thot
> 
> uhhhh what else. oh yeah I was planning on putting the first "I love you" in the big fic I have coming up but these two are literally /that/ couple and I couldn't really hold off on it for much longer ajdbjbfa I've decided to write a couple more pieces before I do the big one but it's definitely coming up so keep an eye open
> 
> hope you enjoyed this, people don't write Rantaro angst like ever (notable exceptions being whattheskyknows, Storyflight, and CatBlasterDisaster,, y'all get all my uwus) so I sometimes feel like I am carrying this fandom but anyway
> 
> <3333 I thirst for comments you guys have no idea how many times I refresh my page just waiting for comments to come in every day even when I haven't posted in like a week


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